Dear Dr. Vajpeyi,

I do apologize for having misspelled your name. Just to make this explicit, because it was not clear from your other message whether you have now classified me among those who offer "thinly-veiled apologetics" of the current government of India's policies: I did not write because I disagree with your political positions, but because I wondered whether it is helpful for your cause, and morally defensible, to be anything but critical of the Emergency. I simultaneously admit that I have no more than superficial knowledge of that period of Indian history, and will be happy to receive information, on or off list, that will allow me to nuance my perspective.

Part of the problem in the increasingly polarized political scenes we see all over the world is that people can't even agree on what the facts are, and refuse to talk about them in a manner that is conducive to solving problems. As a generally silent observer of political debates on this list, I conclude by expressing the hope that you and Nityanand Misra (who has taken it upon himself to challenge you on most occasions when you write to the list), and more generally the two political camps that you two seem to represent, will start to attempt to find some common ground. At least on this list such an effort may actually be realistically achievable.

With best wishes,

Arlo Griffiths

École française d'Extrême-Orient